design ideas

1 Dividing lines 2 Standing stones This design by Swedish Travel to slate-rich Snowdonia, architects Wingårdhs in north and you’ll shows how a traditional craft see dramatic, sheets of technique – in this case slate linked together with hurdle making – can be used in wire to contain upland sheep. a contemporary manner; the Here they demonstrate the hurdles are neatly framed within powerful impact of repetition metal panels. The close within a landscape. repetition of the frames draws you in to explore the garden. 3 Patterned paths Observing the patterns of old paving can often spark ideas; here in the entrance garden at Plas yn Rhiw, a National Trust manor house on Gwynedd’s Llyn Peninsula, in north Wales, 2 cobblestones are laid as a uniform surface and only change direction in their pattern to announce a front door or side entrance. This detailing promotes a change in pace as you walk through the space. 4 Fencing in Sweden’s roundpole fences are a typical countryside feature; each province has its own style depending on local materials and customs. Traditionally, the spruce poles were long so that when they were in need of repair, they could easily be driven back into the ground. Amazingly, the 1 3 4 oldest known roundpole fence

JAMES SILVERMAN JAMES AB / ALAMY MATTON 4 ROBERT IMAGES, TRUST / NATIONAL HAWES 3 CHARLES / ALAMY, KEARTON 2 ANDREW dates back to the Iron Age.

or most of history people built houses and gardens place that recognises a garden as part of a larger landscape and using local materials and local techniques, for the simple a timescale bigger than our own. Freason that nothing else was available. Revolutions in Almost every stone-bearing district in Europe has its own style transport changed all that and now architects and garden of dry-stone field wall. Built by skilled hands they reflect the local designers can get new ideas and materials from around the geology and types of farming. In the Black Mountains in Wales, world at the click of a mouse. In fact it can be more expensive where I live, the dry-stone walls are often built on banks and some and logistically more difficult to source locally and use have ancient ‘plashed’ or ‘laid’ trees growing on top with massive Local heroes traditional methods. So what is the appeal of going local? horizontal trunks. Travel northwest to slate-rich Snowdonia and Sarah Price is one of the Good design begins with an appreciation of locality; from you’ll see upright sheets of slate fastened together with metal wire, UK’s most sought-after garden designers who won Using traditional, local materials and supporting local the views out into the wider landscape to the underlying similar to the standing flagstones in parts of Orkney. Cornish worldwide recognition for craftsmen needn’t be costly and will give your garden geology, climate and ecology. Using local materials in a garden banks have earth at their centre and battered stone facings that her designs for the 2012 helps open a conversation with its surroundings. It’s not about harbour rich flora; wild thyme, pennywort and stonecrop. Olympic Park. design a timeless feel that’s grounded in its locality doing things a certain way just because that’s how they’ve always Architects will often create detailed ‘mood boards’ of local WORDS SARAH PRICE been done. It’s about developing a sense of connection with vernacular styles to inform their designs, to capture the

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5 Natural barriers 9 Winding wall Laid , such as this one Land artist, Andy Goldsworthy, from southern England, look describes the stone walls of the beautiful even when first laid. If UK countryside as a living part the cycle of laying and trimming of the landscape. Working with is repeated every 15 to 25 years, skilled craftsmen, he creates hedges can last indefinitely. artworks that meander through forests (left) or dry-stone 6 Bit of a squeeze walls that form his rectilinear An ancient ‘squeeze stile’ in artwork Sheepfolds in Cumbria. Hartington in the Peak District looks like a pair of angel’s wings. Further information In reality, it is a practical artefact; You can find out more about the gap is narrow enough regional styles of hedgelaying at to deter livestock while the gardensillustrated.com/ curved profile gives space for article/design/how-lay-hedge your upper body and legs You’ll also find information on (provided you’re slim enough) to 5 6 hedgerows at Hedgelink squeeze through. Modern (hedgelink.org.uk) and interpretations in metal or stone the National Hedge Laying could be equally as striking. Society (hedgelaying.org.uk). The Dry Stone Walling 7 Tall story Association of Great Britain At this Rectory garden in the (dswa.org.uk) provides Cotswolds [issue 199, page 30], information on this traditional designer Dan Pearson has used craft, while Common Ground the local Oolitic limestone to (commonground.org.uk) is create dry-stone walls with tall, a charity that champions local cloister-like proportions. diversity. You can find out more Slot-like windows reinforce about its work in: England In the elegant dimensions. Particular by Sue Clifford and Angela King (Saltyard Books, 8 Ancient craft 2006). And find out more about Herringbone, a style of walling what makes your local area known locally as ‘curzy way’, is distinctive in the The Pevsner unique to north Cornwall, and Architectural Guides, a

was most probably introduced / ALAMY NYC CARRAN 7 8 c 9 series of guide books on the

to Britain by the Romans. 8 PNL, ALL ALAMY ELLIS, , 6 JACKIE 5 TIM GRAHAM MA M architecture of the British Isles.

feel for local materials and distinctive details that make a wall; in urban settings roughly textured finishes in new ‘bullfinch’ hedge; in the South West the hedges are lower and at the base of a river bank to stabilise and prevent erosion. place unique: from brick coursings, windows, joinery, signage materials can successfully emulate the character of nearby denser because they enclose sheep rather than cattle. In Devon I’ve seen them turned on their ends, tightly bound in a row to kerb stones. Garden designers can do the same and there historic walls. To make a mixture of old and modern you and the Welsh Marches hedges tend to be planted on banks. to create a tall fence. Cleft oak, chestnut and hazel fencing is no reason why time-honoured crafts can’t be used alongside need a strong, single-minded vision, otherwise you risk a Traditional ‘soft engineering’ techniques for river restoration panels can also look contemporary if presented within a modern manufacturing processes and aesthetics – done well, jarring cacophony of disparate styles. are also underexploited; I’m experimenting with ‘willow spiling’ – crisp wooden or metal frame. they accentuate each other. Local doesn’t have to mean more expensive; our native where living willow is woven as a retaining structure – to stabilise Traditional, slow, craft techniques are a counterblast Interesting designs tend to expose rather than smooth over the trees can be laid into beautiful hedges and woven or tied to form a bank in my garden. The ‘spiling’ will only be around 30cm high to the blandness of mass production. Age-old crafts different layers of history. The Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, for flexible, growing structures. More than 30 different and does not require footings and cement as a brick wall. All the and their unsung makers have absorbing stories to tell. example, carefully balances new and old; old brick alongside rough hedge-laying styles have evolved in Britain using techniques investment will be in the labour; live willow rods woven between Beyond their obvious romantic appeal, time-honoured concrete inlaid with precious materials, such as copper, and glass that date back to Roman times. Each regional style is unique and live willow uprights will form a flexible, growing structure, and crafts are sustainable, practical, adaptable, durable and in juxtaposed against weathered local stone. The ‘new’ interventions practical, tailored to local uses and conditions, and these were the area behind will be filled with soil for the willow to root into. harmony with the geographic and cultural context of a are held apart from the old by reveal joints and variations in levels. recently explained in more detail in Gardens Illustrated October Even neatly aligned ‘brushwood bundles’ and ‘faggots’ look garden. It’s not just about a reverie with the past; it’s also Simplicity is best; in my local woods a raised wooden 2015 [issue 226, page 72]. The best known is the stout Midlands architectural in the right setting, these are bundles of coppice, about reinvention, experimentation and the forging of boardwalk contrasts with a partially collapsed, mossy dry-stone bullock hedge but there is also the tall and thick two or three metres long that are traditionally secured in place new collaborations with old traditions.

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